Gooseberry, Birds and Weather

Lincoln's Sparrow

Before I write about yesterday shoot, let me tell you my tale of woe.  What are my hard disks that had all my pictures from 2015 had a malfunction and I lost my pictures..  First thing that I did was go to my backup site that is on the cloud.  I utilize Backblaze as my backup agent.  They furnished me with a hard drive containing my backup for the hard disks that failed.  I did have to wait a week before I received it.  I did have to pay for the hard disk but that was all right because there was over a terabit of data and it would take in ages just to download the data.  I then went and tried some recovery options that I had and I recovered files, but they were in a folder that for some reason I could not find or access.  So all the pictures I took since the drive corruption, I did import into Lightroom and save the cards to I made sure everything was back in place.  If you are interested you can go to Backblaze and see their offerings, and if you use this URL you get a free month of service.  Plus, I also will get a free month https://secure.backblaze.com/r/010sos  Enough of that, now for the fun.

Earlier in the week we were out at Gooseberry and the migrants were coming through and we were able to photograph a number of different sparrows, including a Lincoln's sparrow.  So yesterday the kids and I decided to go back to Gooseberry to see what we could photograph.  It was partly cloudy when we left home with a little wind blowing.  When we got to Gooseberry.  The wind was really blowing and the waves were crashing against the rocks and the causeway.  The sparrows with their but because of the wind.  The birds were staying mainly in the bushes and it was harder to get clear photographs.

Swamp Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

In the Southwest, the sky was clouding up and darkening and you could see a storm coming.  At this point I changed from bird photography to landscape photography.  I love the look of the way the waves were crashing.  It started darkening over us and some very light rain started.  Suddenly there were three strikes of lightning close by, so we packed up and headed home in a torrential downpour until we reach Fall River and the sky was much clearer and no rain.  Now the nice part of when I was photographing the storm I was videoing at the time of the lightning.  It was able to capture it on video.

Storm Coming In

The Waves Coming in and the Clouds Swarming

Gooseberry Island

This blog is a short break from my writings on my trip to Canada.  On Tuesday morning, whenever we can, Doug and I go out birding and I do photography also.  We traveled out to Gooseberry Island, which is part of the Horseneck Beach State Reservation, hopefully to see the Short-eared Owl that has been located there.

Doug walk in the fields looking for short-eared owl

In the old days, the way you reached Gooseberry was to cross over a sandbar at low tide.  Between 1913 to 1924, the first Causeway to Gooseberry I sland was finished.  It became a thriving summer colony.  During World War II, Army and Navy installations were built on the island to act as fire control towers for coastal guns.  In 1954 Hurricane Carol did extensive damage on the island.  And in 1956, the state took over Gooseberry as part of the Horseneck Beach Reservation.

It is a great birding area and the resting point for migrants both in spring and fall.

We arrived before sunrise, watch the incredible sunrise, met Dan Logan, who showed us where they had found the short-eared owl.  However, no luck with the owl.  We did find Cooper's Hawk and Kestrels, and a number of other species.

Common Loon in Flight

Atlantic Brandt in Flight

White-throated Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow

Some of the Rosa Rogusa were still in bloom despite the recent cold weather.  Actually, it felt colder than I had felt in Canada because of a brisk northerly wind.  However, I was prepared and had dressed appropriately for the weather.

Rosa Rogusa

Other Birds Seen on the Cape

Red-breasted Merganser-Male

During our birding trip on Thursday we also saw other species of birds in Provincetown harbor besides the gulls and the thick-billed murre. There were red-breasted mergansers and common eiders swimming and feeding.

Red-breasted Merganser-Female

Common Eider-Male

Common Eider-Female

After we had left Race Point we stopped at the Beech Forest, where the usual common passerines hang out. In fact, if you bring some sunflower seeds and put them in your palm Black-capped-Chickadees and tufted titmouse is will come down and feed right out of your hand. The birds are very used to people since feeding them by hand has been going on for many years and families will bring their children there and let the child feed the birds. A great way for children to learn about and enjoying nature.

Tufted Titmouse Feeding from Hand

Black-capped Chickadee Feeding from Hand

Other birds present at the Beech Forest, included red-breasted woodpeckers (unable to photograph) white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow and Blue Jays.

White-throated Sparrow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Blue Jay

The last interesting bird was a nice close-up of a juvenile Horned Grebe in Wellfleet Harbor.

Horned Grebe